Account Configuration Guide

Hotel Effectiveness by Actabl

Introduction

Setting up your Hotel Effectiveness account correctly is the foundation for accurate labor management and actionable insights. This guide is designed for Account Admins to ensure that properties, departments, and labor standards are configured to match your specific operational needs and brand requirements.

1. Property & Portfolio Setup

Before users can manage schedules, the organizational structure must be defined.

• Property Profiles: Ensure each property has the correct brand, room count, and time zone assigned. This ensures that benchmark data and reporting intervals are accurate.
• Organizational Hierarchy: Group properties into regions or portfolios to enable consolidated reporting for area managers and corporate stakeholders.
• Fiscal Settings: Define your start of the week (e.g., Sunday vs. Monday) and your fiscal calendar to align Hotel Effectiveness data with your accounting cycles.

2. Department & Position Mapping

To track labor effectively, your system structure should mirror your actual hotel operations.

1. Standardizing Departments: Use consistent naming across the portfolio (e.g., Housekeeping, Front Office, Maintenance) to allow for cross-property comparisons.
2. Mapping Positions: Assign specific positions to each department.
   • Functional Tip: Distinguish between fixed positions (e.g., Night Audit) and variable positions (e.g., Room Attendant) to improve forecasting accuracy.
3. GL Code Alignment: Map your internal General Ledger codes to Hotel Effectiveness departments to simplify end-of-period labor reconciliations.

3. Labor Standards & Rules

Labor standards define the "ideal" number of hours required based on volume (occupancy, covers, or square footage).

• Variable Standards: Set "Minutes Per Occupied Room" (MPOR) for housekeeping or "Hours Per Cover" for F&B.
• Fixed Standards: Define the minimum staffing requirements that do not change with volume (e.g., 24/7 Front Desk coverage).
• Overtime & Labor Rules: Configure local labor laws and company policies, such as:
  • Daily and weekly overtime thresholds.
  • California-specific "Spread of Hours" or meal break rules.
  • Minimum shift lengths.

4. System Integrations

Hotel Effectiveness is most powerful when it talks to your other systems.

• PMS Integration: Automate the import of daily "Actual" occupancy and "Forecast" stay-over data. This eliminates manual entry and ensures labor targets update in real-time.
• Time & Attendance (T&A): Connect your time clock system to pull in actual hours worked. This allows the system to calculate labor variance (Actual vs. Scheduled vs. Standard) instantly.
• Budgeter Sync: If using ProfitSword, enable the Budgeter Sync to pull financial budgets directly into your labor plans, ensuring operational schedules stay within financial guardrails.

5. MyHotelTeam Configuration

MyHotelTeam is the mobile-first portal for your associates. Admins must configure these global settings:

• Schedule Visibility: Determine how far in advance associates can view their schedules.
• Shift Claims & Swaps: Enable or disable the ability for employees to trade shifts or claim "open" shifts, with or without manager approval.
• Communication Preferences: Set default notification types (Push, Email, or SMS) for schedule updates and shift reminders.

6. Configuration Checklist for Admins

Review these items before "Go-Live" or at the start of a new fiscal year:

• [ ] All active departments and positions are mapped.
• [ ] Labor standards (MPOR/Fixed) are validated against current brand standards.
• [ ] PMS and T&A data feeds are active and error-free.
• [ ] Overtime alerts are configured to notify the correct managers.

For technical support or complex configuration changes, please contact the Actabl Implementation Team.